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Algorithms as mechanisms: the price of anarchy of relax-and-round

Published: 16 March 2016 Publication History

Abstract

We show that algorithms that follow the relax-and-round paradigm translate approximation guarantees into Price of Anarchy guarantees, provided that the rounding is oblivious and the relaxation is smooth. We use this meta result to obtain simple, near-optimal mechanisms for a broad range of optimization problems such as combinatorial auctions, the maximum traveling salesman problem, and packing integer programs. In each case the resulting mechanism matches or beats the performance guarantees of known mechanisms.

References

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  1. Algorithms as mechanisms: the price of anarchy of relax-and-round

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      cover image ACM SIGecom Exchanges
      ACM SIGecom Exchanges  Volume 14, Issue 2
      December 2015
      42 pages
      EISSN:1551-9031
      DOI:10.1145/2904104
      Issue’s Table of Contents

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      Association for Computing Machinery

      New York, NY, United States

      Publication History

      Published: 16 March 2016
      Published in SIGECOM Volume 14, Issue 2

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      Author Tags

      1. algorithmic game theory
      2. black-box reductions
      3. price of anarchy
      4. smoothness

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